A Not so Magical Clichéd Story
by xs18
Summary: AU How my Harry and Fleur from "A clichéd Story" would have met and how would have their relationship developed if there was no magic involved in the process. T for a few curse words.


**Hello readers as I promised here you have "A Not so Magical Clichèd Story" this story deals with how my fic "A Clichèd Story" would be without magic.**

 **Again I don't own Harry Potter.**

 **As always Read, Enjoy and Review Follow and Favourite.**

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 **In a World Without Magic**

James Stapleton looked at the stack of unopened newspapers and magazines and wondered if it had been a good idea to buy so many of them, his was a small shop, with limited things, yellow press, some serious newspapers, some sports newspapers, gossip and decoration magazines, cheap editions of bestsellers, some candies for the kids that came by after school, a few bands of cigarettes... just the usual things for normal customers and one or two foreign papers for the travellers that, sometimes stopped by. Last night however, after hearing the news, he had called his distributor at the last possible minute to double his usual order of national newspapers, buy twenty copies of the french journal Le Monde and have him place a subscription for next month's Time magazine where a full coverage of the story was announced.

At the time it seemed like a good idea, it was not every day that something like this happened, but now he started to have doubts, there were not enough people among his clients to sell that number of national papers -maybe if the older kids were interested enough, but normally they were only interested in papers to see the results of the Premier, and they didn't even buy the paper for that these days they could check it for free with the internet now.

Even if he by some miracle could sell all the english papers he didn't knew how he was going to recuperate the money he had spent in the french papers and in the Time editions he had ordered, few people here knew french, and even when they knew it, it was just a little, what they remembered from school. Perhaps if someone from the capital came... but few stopped here nowadays, and even if they did there was no guaranty they would buy anything, they could buy the newspapers at the capital too, maybe some of the teachers form the privet school nearby came today, they were bound to be interested and they should know french shouldn't they?

With a sight the elder man started to unwrap the boxes and put the different papers in the usual order. The article that had compelled him to spent a money he was not sure he could earn back, was in the front page of all of them, in some it was larger than in other in a few, apart from the french ones of course, it was even the main article. The headlines differed from one to the other but they all read something like: "French perfume business man Allain Dleacour's daughters kidnapped."

...

* * *

Allain Delacour was, for the first time in his life lost, and he didn't liked it, he had spent the last half an hour in the office he had in his home in Paris staring at the phone racking his brain to evaluate who he could call to solve this situation but he had not found anyone. The main problem was he didn't knew if he could trust any of his usual contacts anymore, after all it had been his own security -the one he had hand-picked one by one after years of following their careers, making sure they had no fault and a solid ethic before recruiting them as soon as they retired from the french army- who had kidnapped his two daughters.

When years ago he had started to make contacts to get privet security it had been just pure precaution, once he started he settled for nothing but the best and so he had gone thought his particular way of selection, it had been slow and expensive, but it had been nothing more than a precaution, he made perfume for Christ's sake! He had no enemies, apart from one or two envious competitors, he didn't do business with anyone of questionable morale that he knew of, he treated his employees well; the only reason anyone would have to harm him was his fortune, a petty motive, at least in his view, but the kidnappers had not called asking for money.

Once they rescued his daughters the investigation process begun and he learnt that there could be a lot of motives apart from money; it could be the act of a environmental group mad at him for testing his products with animal or used contaminant chemicals, normally they were pacifist, the agents said, but there were a few extreme members , but as he had told the police he didn't test the perfumes with any animals, or used any contaminants that he was aware of, so that ruled out that possibility. It could be organ trading, after all they were healthy girls one of the investigators had remarked, or even sex trade, other pointed out. Allain was horrified, his daughters needed protection, but who could he contact, after all his previous security team should had been the best an instead of that they were just a bunch of criminals.

Allain rubbed his eyes tiredly and got up deciding to go check on his daughters once more, he went first to Gabrielle's room, his youngest had not stopped crying since the gendarmes rescued her, she probably hadn't stopped crying since they took her, Allain thought angrily. In spite of the little time she had spent as a hostage it had made an impact on her, she will probably have to see a psychologist for some time, thought Allain sadly. For what she had been able to tell the special interrogator, the police brought along, between sobs they had not harmed her, they had simply tied her up, blinded her and put some fabric in her mouth so she couldn't scream, the only visible evidence now were the red marks in her wrists were the rope had been. She had been in shock when they had bought her until she broke down. Still she had came out of the ordeal better than her sister.

He walked a little further into the corridor and arrived at his eldest room; he quietly opened the door; there in the queen size bed covered in light blue sheets was his daughter still wide awake her knees drawn up against her chest, her head resting on her knees, her face hided. The only thing Allain could see from the door was a mane of blonde hair, and yet he was sure she was awake for her body trembled from time to time and even from the door he could hear her quiet crying.

He slowly walked to her bed softly clearing his throat as to not startled her. Upon hearing the sound her daughter's head shot up, tears still streaming from her face even as she frantically tried to dried them up, her blue eyes wild and terrified until she saw it was only him. Seeing her face Allain could not help but wince. Fleur apparently had tried to resist her abductors an as a reward she had received a black eye a broken lip, a strained wrist and sore ribs as those bastards had apparently kicked her in the ribs when she already was on the floor, marks of being tied where also present in her.

"You should try to sleep ma petite" he said sitting next to her in the bed.

"Are the gendarmes still here" she asked instead of answering.

"Most of them left a few hours ago" the moment those words left his mouth Fleur started to tremble again "don't worry two are watching the house to make sure nothing happens, besides we have one of the best security systems in the market, we are safe here" he said all the while realizing how untrue and false that must have sounded to her, none of those things had prevented her kidnapping that morning. For the thousand time Allain Delacour started to go over all the people he knew that could help him protect his daughters from future attempts, this time however a name came to his mind. He hurriedly stood up to go make a call but was stopped by Fleur's hand in his arm;

"Please don't go, stay a little with me, just until I fall asleep" Fleur said apologetically in a broken whisper .

"Of course" Allain said and settled in her daughters bed again. A full hour passed before a restless Fleur fell asleep. Several times during that hour she was almost out just to gasp and open her eyes again fully alert. This time however several minutes had passed and there wasn't any sign of her waking up so Allain quietly slipped out of the room and went to his office. Once seated behind his desk he started to search the number he wanted -he didn't have it recorded in his phone since he had never called it since the time the security agent had given him her card at the end of a chemist convention held in England.- after a moment he founded it under the B section of the notebook he kept besides the phone: Bones Amelia.

...

* * *

Amelia Bones cursed herself again, she had a whole list of employed staff to pick, she was the owner of a whole firm dedicated to protection detail and security. Why then was she searching the only man that would not listen to her, well that was of course if he didn't decide to kill her on sight, she knew why; when Allain Delacour had called her he had seemed so desperate that Amelia could not help but try to impress him, maybe after that he would become a permanent client, he certainly had money to spend. Besides it was a lot of money for just a couple of hours of work.

So when he had said that he only had four conditions she had accepted before hearing them, big mistake, she thought now. At first sight the conditions seemed easy enough to meet; Allain wanted the best, but then again she only employed the best.

The person couldn't be french or have ties in France, easy enough most of her staff were either English, Americans, or Finnish.

He or she could not have a military or force enforcement history, in other words Allain wanted someone unknown, there things got tricky, many of her employees where ex policemen or women or military personnel that had gone to the privet sector after retiring.

By the fourth condition things got nearly impossible this individual couldn't be too old, as the mission was to protect his sixteen years old daughter and Allain wanted them to pass for her daughters' friends. The only people that met all those conditions were people that had come to her after a bad background; most of the time men and women that had been forced to survive on their own being younger.

Once in the were old enough to realise how bad their situation was it was, normally too late, they usually found themselves not having learn english very well, unemployed and with a sealed police record, if they were lucky, or in jail for street fight or stealing if they were not.. If they were not too psychologically damaged by the time they turned eighteen Amelia gave them an opportunity to study work , and if they wished to, she trained and honed the abilities they had learnt along the way and turned them into bodyguards .

This was the case of the man she was meeting today, although meeting was not the best word, perhaps the most apt word was ambush.

When she arrived at the pub in London, where according to her sources he spend most of his days now, the black-haired man was already nursing his third Guinness in spite of the relatively early hour, Amelia wondered if talking to him now was such a good idea, but she didn't have much choice; the first call from Allain had been a week ago, since then the man had called her every day, getting more desperate each time she told him that she hadn't found anyone yet but that she was still searching, he had even threatened her with braking the deal with her and searching capable people by "other means."Amelia didn't doubt the man had enough money to do it and so she had told him that she knew someone but it would all depend on if he accepted of not.

Not the best decision she had ever made she realized. Of course Allain had mistaken the matter for financial one and had told her to give the man as much as he wanted if he was so good as she had told him, but money was not the issue at all.

With a sight Amelia hurried to the lone table by the corner where the stranger sat and took a chair.

"Damn it" the man said slurring a bit "this was my favourite pub but it seems nowadays they let anyone in"

"Hello to you too Harry, how have you been" She asked.

"Drunk as you can see, what is that you want Mrs bones?"

"I have a job for you" she answered and the man let out a humourless dry laugh.

"You came here to give me my job back?" he asked disbelievingly.

"On a temporary basis, yes, after the trial period it will all depend on how well you do" she said.

"I cannot believe... have you forgotten what I did? How your father kicked me out and told me that I wouldn't get any more protection jobs anywhere. Fist time he was honest with me in his life" he said drinking from his glass again.

"You killed and innocent man" she said a bit too loudly, making some of the people at the pub turn their heads around to look at them.

" Keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night but Tom Marvolo Riddle was no innocent man" he said "besides I remind you that I was found innocent, there were no evidence against me, or anyone for that matter, maybe he finally realized what he had done and decided to do the right thing for once in his life" he said finishing his pint and ordering another one.

"Listen I didn't come here to talk about the past" Amelia said "I have an offer for you do you..."

"My answer is as always screw you, now let me drink in peace"

"Oh and can you afford those pints because for what I know you are broke Harry."

"Looking into my accounts Bones, isn't that illegal?" he asked with a mocking tone. she remained silent " That's what I thought, get out of here before I call the police." he said and took a long gulp. Amelia sighted.

"Look the payment is good and you have no money left, at least consider it"

"You have become a greedy creature Bones, be careful or you might end up protecting killers like your old man did. I don't need your money, I can still work and if nothing comes out" he said smirking "Now that he is no longer around I could always send my c.v. to a privet firm. I bet I could gave some of your guys a run for their money if I was on the other side" he said now fully smiling.

"Well then if money doesn't interest you look at it this way, there are two girls who are so afraid they won't leave their house, and you could maybe help by giving them a sense of security." She said trying very hard not to react to his comment about her father.

"What drugs are you on Amelia? I don't protect people, I don't make anyone feel secure, not anymore anyway, According to your father and nearly half of the press I'm a cold blooded murderer. Maybe that is my next career" Harry said defeat slipping for the first time in his tone.

"We both know that it's not what you think, you may have had to kill Riddle when your job demanded it, but you always knew what your objective was, neutralize the threat, protect your client. Yes you did kill Riddle but even then you thought you had a reason" Amelia said and stood up "you know my number, if you change your mind and want to hear the offer call me" she said and walked away.

Harry watched her leave, his mind reeling, it was true he needed the money, but taking the offer from Amelia Bones the one that had cost him his job, the only thing he knew how to do, of course now she was practically giving him back the same thing. But he doubted he was still capable to do it, besides whoever the client was he was sure the shadow of what he did will follow him. Still It would be nice to protect people again, and he really needed the money. _Damn it!_ Thought Harry.

"Bones wait!" he shouted from the table making the few costumers present at the pub turn their heads towards them once more but Harry didn't paid them any attention "What it's the job?" he asked. Amelia turned and walked deliberately slowly back to the table. This was a battle of wills, she knew, and so far she was wining, yes she needed him badly but he needed money just as bad. So she took her time made him wait and finally sat down.

"Have you read the papers lately?" she asked he shook his head no "Well the daughter of a important french perfume maker and businessman was kidnapped a week ago, apparently she tried to resist and was beaten for it, now the poor girl refuses to leave her house. She is even scared of being in her own house when she knows there are no gendarmes around to watch her, so her father contacted me and asked me for someone not much older than her to protect her and I thought about you. He will pay you..."Amelia was saying when she was cut off by Harry.

"I thought Allain Delacour had two daughters" he said intrigued.

"And I thought you said you hadn't read the papers lately" she answered miffed at him.

"and I didn't, but I do watch the news, no one reads the papers anymore Amelia.

"Well ok, he has two daughters but the youngest is only seven and apparently was unharmed and it's coping much better than her sister, maybe because she doesn't fully understand what could have happened had they not been found and recued. When the need arises we will search for protection for her, your mission is to protect the other. And follow the orders this time or you won't be able to breathe air without the aid of a machine when I'm done with you" Amelia said

Harry simply raised an eyebrow as answer, almost taunting, inviting her to try and do what she said. "As I was telling you he is willing to pay you 2500 pounds per week plus expenses, you will only have to be wherever she is and protect her . I advise you to take it, with your records as they are right now you are not going to get a better offer, or any offer for that matter." she sentenced and handing him a dossier said "Here is all you need to know read it carefully, you are expected in France in two days, someone will pick you up at the airport" She stood up and was about to go when Harry stopped her again.

"Did you tell him why I have been unemployed for so long?"

"I will send him your file as soon as I arrive at my office but I'm sure he won't mind, he was very specific as to what he wanted and you are the best candidate according to the criteria." With that Amelia Bones Harry's former best friend and saver stood up and left.

...

* * *

Allain Delacour read the file in his laptop screen a second time to make sure he has not missed anything: there it was detailed the date of birth, gender, age, stature, weigh, residence, medical records, and anything he could want to know about one Harry Potter.

Amelia had emailed it to him a few hours ago. None of that mattered to him however, the only thing he wanted to know if he was good or not, and it seemed he was more than average at least. The man had conducted his fair share of security detail operations in his brief time with Amelia's father, but that had only been a year, he had started when he was eighteen and had been kicked out for killing someone named Tom Marvolo Riddle when he was about to turn nineteen since then he had been unemployed. He was now twenty.

It was not much experience, but at least it was something and judging by his performance under Amelia's training he performed very well and was resourceful when under stress. That was all that mattered to him.

Five minutes later Allain sent an answer to Amelia and half of the first payment so that Potter could pay for his plane ticket to France.

Harry's flight to France had been its first and while he didn't find it scary or uncomfortable sleep eluded him so he instead decided to review the file Amelia had given him, only to discover that bullshit would had been a more appropriate word to describe it.

The file only contained her full name stature, weigh, Harry calculated that he could easily carry her if the situation arose, age, sixteen, family members, the school she attended and a few more details that he could have easily found out upon arrival if he asked the family.

No information was given on the attack or the attackers as no employee or family member, including Gabrielle, had seen anything and Fleur could not speak about it without going into shock. Nothing to work with, nothing to prepare for. He was going in blind.

...

* * *

The plane landed with a slight delay which meant that Harry was already behind schedule, once he arrived Harry went directly to exit, as he didn't have to pick up any luggage as he had only brought long a backpack, he didn't have that many things to begin with. There a slender tall man in a black suit waited for him in the arrivals gate.

"Mr. Potter, 'arry Potter" the man said not bothering to pronounce the h in his name and horribly mispronouncing his surname.

"That would be me, you are?" he asked.

"I'm your driver, Monsieur Delacour told me to pick you up and drive you directly to the Delacour manor" He said looking Harry upside down, apprising him.

"And here I was hoping that we could stop for a few beers, shame"

"You won't need that here" the driver said with an accent that made Harry cringe.

"What beer?" asked Harry amused.

"No that" the man said pointing to the leather jacket Harry was wearing. When they finally excited the airport Harry could literally feel what the man was talking about, when he left England the weather had been a bit cold that was why he had decided to take his jacket and few summer jerseys but in France the time was warm and he started to sweat so he took of the jacket.

The ride to the Delacour Manor was mostly a quiet one, at first Harry attempted to gather some ore information from the driver but, as he discovered, he was new he had been hired just a few days ago just as the rest of the staff as the Delacour had fired all their previous staff after the incident.

Stupid move as now Harry would have to check them all instead of narrowing it down to whom looked suspicious the day of the kidnapping, they wouldn't try anything with the gendarmes there.

After that the ride was a quiet one, luckily it didn't last more than twenty minute. Once they arrived at the Delacour manor he was announced, which made him think of the films about royalty he had seen, the few times he managed to get enough money to go to the movies or whenever he managed to sneak in undetected, In which every noble man and woman attended a ball and they were announced one by one.

He was received by mister Delacour and his wife.

"Mr. Potter" Mr. Delacour said "welcome to our house, before we go to see my daughters I wanted you to met my wife"

"It a pleasure" Mrs Delacour said.

"The pleasure is all mine" Harry said rigidly "If you don't mind Mr. Delacour I want to stars as soon as possible" Harry said politely he couldn't crew this job after all.

"Before you go" Mrs. Delacour interrupted I would like to ask you a question Mr. Potter."

"Whatever you want" Harry said faking a polite tone.

"When...when our daughters were kidnapped we had the best security team money could buy, now Amelia Bones send you. Only one, a boy barely older than my own daughters why should I believe that they would be safer?"

"You see Mrs. Delacour the bad thing about the supposedly best teams that money can buy is that they can be bought by your enemies with more money. Me, I'm certainly not the best, I'm not even among the best in this business but I'm confident that I will be able to guard your daughter, Fleur, just fine. And contrary to the members of your former security team I don't sell my dignity" Harry said and then left the room to wait for Allain Delacour in the corridor.

A few minutes later Allain entered the corridor "Excuse my wife she is a bit nervous, but do you really needed to be so hard?" the man asked slightly exasperated.

"No, I didn't but it's better this way. If your wife or you or your daughters don't trust me I will fail even before I start. This way she will remember that I will do my best to protect your daughters" Harry said while they walked. "By the way I have been talking to your driver, your new driver, I will files on all your new personnel . And I also advice you to change your alarm system. The kidnappers already know how it works."

"You think they will return?" Allain Delacour said frightened.

"I don't know it, but it's better to be prepared" Harry said.

"I have the best alarm system for what could I possibly change it, if they can break this one they can break anything" Allain said defeated.

"Don't worry I'll talk to a couple of friends, see what we can do. Is this Fleur's room?" Harry asked.

"Yes, you will meet Gabrielle, Fleur's sister tomorrow if you don't mind. She is sleeping now." With that Allain knocked in the white door and opened it "Fleur ma petite the man I told you about is here." he said in a soft voice.

Fleur didn't even looked at her instead she directed her big blue orbs to her father "but the gendarmes are still here right?" she asked fearful.

"No, they left since I have hire Mr. Potter now" upon hearing that Fleur started trembling and sobbed. Harry feeling like and intruder quietly slipped away, deciding to take that moment to check the security of the house.

Fleur had been debating with herself for an hour now whether she should open the door and talk to her knew bodyguard or not. She wanted to, but she was embarrassed. _She must think I'm a little girl and rightly so_ she thought but she was so curious about him. In the end curiosity won. Slowly she opened the door and looked. No one was there.

With the heart beating madly she closed it again and went to bed again covering herself to the head. She was a bit scared why wasn't Mr. Potter there, had something happened?

Twenty minutes passed until she dared to open the door again. Again she opened slowly again no one seemed to be there but a voice asked.

"Hello, did you want something?" Startled Fleur was to close the door again when the voice halted her "Hey don't worry it's me your new bodyguard see" he said standing in front of the door so she could see him.

Fleur opened the door again and stood in the threshold "Why weren't you here before?" Fleur demanded angrily.

"I was checking the house security system" Harry answered calmly.

"And" Fleur asked in a whisper.

"Don't worry you are safe here" he said and smiled. Fleur thought that her father had said the same before she was kidnapping but not wanting the images to surface again quickly changed the topic.

"You have a very characteristic accent Mr. Potter are you english" Fleur asked

"Yes Miss Delacour, you have a very keen ear" he complimented her. Fleur had a lot of other questions to ask but suddenly all the sleep she had missed those past days caught up to her and she felt very tired. Not bothering to say good night she closed the door and went to the bed she had vacated just minutes ago.

That night didn't came easier than other times, nor did Fleur sleep more, she still woke up each few hours awoken by the nightmares that hunted her sleep. But what little she did sleep she sleep better and when she woke up she didn't screamed scared. Once awake she was oddly calm and fleur was sure that was thanks to Mr. Potter's presence.

...

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 **So did you liked it. what did you thought. If you are interedted in this and want me to continue it the only thing you have to do is ask.**

 **xs18**


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